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Message  of  the 
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MESSAGE  OF  THE  PRESIDENT. 


TO  THE  COKGBESS  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE 

States  of  A  meek  a  : 

C  EX  TEEM  EN, 

My  Message,  addressed  to  you   at   tlio 

commencement  of  this  session,  continued  such  lull  infor- 
mation of  the  state  of  the  ( 'oiifcder.irv  as  io  render  it  un- 
necessary thai  1  should  nOW  do  more  than  call  your  atten- 
tion to  such  important  facts  as  have  occurred  during  the 
recess,  and  to  mailers  connected!  with  the  public  defence. 

I  have  again  to  congratulate  you  oh  the  accession  of 
new  members  to  our  Confederation  of  free,  equal  and 
sovereign  States.  Cur  loved  and  honored  brethren  of 
North  Carolina  and  Tennessee  naive  consummated  the  ac- 
tion, foreseen  and  provided  for  ;it  your  last  session,  and  I 
have  had  the  gratification  Of  Announcing,  by  prbclama- 
lion,  in  conformity  with  law,  that  those  Stales  wore  ad- 
mitted into  the  Confederacy. 

The  people  of  Virginia  also,  by  a  majority  previously 
unknown  in  her  history,  have  ratified  the  action  of  her 
Convention,  uniting  her  fortunes  with  ours.  The  States 
of  Arkansas,  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  have  likewise, 
adopted  the  permanent  Constitution  of  the  Confederate 
States,  and  no  doubt  is  entertained  of  its  adoption  by 
Tennessee  at  the  election  to  be  held  early  next  month. 

1  deemed  it  advisable  to  direct  the  removal  of  the  se- 
veral Executive  Departments,  with  their  archives,  to  this 
city,  to  which  you  had  removed  the  seat  of  government, 
immediately  after  your  adjournment.  rJ  no  aggressive 
movements  of  the  enemy  required  prompt  and  energetic 
action.  The  accumulation  of  Ins  forces  on  the  Potomac 
sufficiently,  demonstrated  that  his  efforts  were  to  be  di- 
rected against  Virginia  :  and  from  no  point  could  the  ne- 
1 


cessary  measures  for  her  defence  and  protection  be  so 
efficiently  directed  as  from  her  own  capital. 

The  rapid  progress  of  events  for  the  last  few  weeks 
has  fully  sufficed  to  strip  the  veil  behind  which  the  true 

policy  and  purposes  of  tin1  (lovernment  of  the  United 
Stated  had  been  previously  concealed;  their  odious  fea- 
tures now  stand  fully  revealed  :  the  message  of  their 
President  and  the  action  of  their  Congress  during  the 
present  month,  confess  the  Intention  of  subjugating  these 
States  by  a  war,  whose  folly  is  equaled  by  its  wicked- 
ness: a  war  by  which  it  is  impossible  to  attain  the  pro- 
posed result,  whilst  its  dire  calamities,  not  to  be  avoided 
By  us,  will  fall  with  double  severity  on  themselves. 

Commencing  in  March  last,  with  an  affectation  of 
ignoring  the  secession  of  the  seven  States  which  first  organ- 
ized this  government:  persisting  in  April  in  the  idle  and 
absurd  assumj  tion  of  the  existence  of  a  riot  which  was 
to  be  dispersed  by  a  posse  comitatus:  continuing  in  suc- 
cessive months  the  false  representation  that  these  States 
intended  offensive  war,  in  spite  of  the  conclusive  evidence 
to  the  contrary,  furnished  as  well  by  official  action,  as  by 
the  very  basis  on  which  this  government  is  constituted: 
the  President  of  the  United  States  and  his  advisers  suc- 
ceeded in  deceiving  the  people  of  those  States  into  the 
belief  that  the  purpose  of  this  government  was  not  peace 
at  home,  but  conquest  abroad  :  not  the  defence  of  its 
own  liberties,  but  the  subversion  of  those  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States. 

The  series  of  manoeuvres  by  which  this  impression  was 
created :  the  art  with  which  they  were  devised,  and  the 
perfidy  with  which  they  were  executed,  were  already 
known  to  you  ;  but  you  could  scarcely  have;  supposed 
that  they  would  be  openly  avowed,  and  their  success 
made  the  subject  of  boast  and  self-laudation  in  an  execu- 
tive message.  Fortunately  for  the  truth  of  history,  how- 
ever, the  President  of  the  United  States  details  with 
minuteness  the  attempt  to  reinforce  Fort  Pickens,  in  vio- 
lation of  an  armistice,  of  which  he  confesses  to  have  been 
informed,  but  "only  by  rumors  too  vague  and  uncertain 
to  fix  attention:"  the  hostile  expedition  dispatched  to 
supply  Fort  Sumpter,  admitted  to  have  been  undertaken 
with  a  knowledge  that  its  success  was  impossible :  the 
sending  of  notice  to  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  of 


his  intention  to  use  force  to  accomplish  his  object :  and 
then  quoting  from  his  Inaugural  Address  the  assurance 
that  there  could  be  no  conflict,  unless  these  States  were 
the  aggressors,  he  proceeds  to  declare  that  his  conduct,  as 
just  related  by  himself,  was  a  performance  of  this  pro- 
mise, "so  free  from  the  power  of  ingenious  sophistry  as 
that  the  world  should  not  be  able  to  misunderstand  it :" 
and  in  defiance  of  his  own  statement  that  he  gave  notice 
of  the  approaeh  of  a  hostile  fleet,  he  charges  these  States 
with  becoming  the  assailants  of  the  United  States, 
"without  a  gun  in  sight  or  in  expectancy  to  return  their 
fire,  save  only  the  few  in  the  fort."  He  is  indeed  fully 
justified  in  saying  that  the  case*  "is  so  free  from  the 
power  of  ingenious  sophistry,  that  the  world  will  not  be 
able  to  misunderstand  it." 

Under  cover  of  this  unfounded  pretence  that  the  Con- 
federate States  are  the  assailants,  that  high  functionary, 
after  expressing  his  concern  that  some  foreign  nations 
"had  so  shaped  their  action  ;is  if  they  supposed  the  early 
destruction  of  our  National  Union  was  probable,"  aban- 
dons all  further  disguise,  and  proposes  "to  make  this 
contest  a  short  and  a  decisive  one,"  by  placing  at  the  con- 
trol of  the  government-  for  the  work,  ni  has!  100, 000 
men,  and  $400,000,000.  The  Congress,  concurring  in 
the  doubt  thus  intimated  as  to  the  sufficiency  of  the 
force  demanded,  has  increased  it  to  half  a  million  of  men. 
These  enormous  preparations  in  men  and  money,  for  the 
conduct  of  a  war  on  a  scale  more  gigantic  than  any  which 
the  new  world  has  ever  witnessed,  is  a  distinct  avowal, 
in  the  eyes  of  civilized  man,  that  the  United  States  are 
engaged  in  a  conflict  with  a  great  and  powerful  nation : 
they  are  at  last  compelled  to  abandon  the  pretence  of 
being  engaged  in  dispersing  rioters  and  suppressing  in- 
surrections; and  are  driven  to  the  acknowledgment  that 
the  ancient  Union  has  been  dissolved.  The)'  recognize 
the  separate  existence  of  these  Confederate  States,  by  the 
interdiction,  embargo  and  blockade  of  all  commerce  be- 
tween them  and  the  United  States,  not  only  by  sea,  but. 
by  land  :  not  only  in  ships,  but  in  rail  cars:  not  only 
with  those  who  bear  arms,  but  with  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  the  Confederate  States.  Finally,  they  have  re- 
pudiated the  foolish  conceit  that  the  inhabitants  of  this 
Confederacy  are  still  citizens  of  the  United  States,  for 


they  are  waging  an  indiscriminate  war  upon  them  all, 
wiili  a  savage  terocity  unknown  to  modern  civilization. 
In  this  war.  rapine  is  the  rule:  private  residences,  in 
peaceful  rural  retreats,  arc  bombarded  and  burnt:  grain 
crop's  in  ilic  Geld  are  consumed  by  the  torch  :  and  when 
tin-  n.'ivh  is  not  convenient,  careful  labor  is  bestowed  to 
render  complete  (he  destruction  of  every  article  of  use  or 
ornament  remaining  in  private  dwellings,  after  their  in- 
habitants have  lied  From  the  outrages  ot  a  brutal  soldiery. 

In  1781,  (ireat  Britain,  when  invading  her  revolted 
('•-!•. nirs,  t<»ok  possession  of  fhe  very  district  of  countcy 
near  Farttess  Monroe  now  occupied  by  troops  ot  the 
United  States.  The  houses  tin  n  inhabited  by  the  peo- 
ple, after  being  respected  and  protected  by  avowed  In- 
vaders, are  now  pillaged  and  destroyed  by  men  v. 'no  pre- 
tend that  the  victims  are  their  fellow-citizens. 

Mankind  will  shudder  to  hear  of  the  tales  of  outrages 
committed  6tl  defenceless  females  by  soldiers  of  the 
United  States  now  invading  our  homes:  yet  these  out- 
rages are  prompted  by  inflamed  passions  and  the  madness 
of  intoxication.  But  who  shall  depjc]  the  horror  with 
which  it  will  regard  the  cool  ami  deliberate  malignity 
which,  under  pretext  of  suppressing  an  insurrection,  said- 
by  themselves  to  be  upheld  by  a  minority  only  of  our 
people,  makes  special  war  on  the  sick,  including  the  wo- 
men and  the  children,  by  carefully  devised  measures  to 
prevent  ihcir  obtaining  the  medicines  necessary  for  their 
cure.  The  sacred  claims  of  humanity,  respected  even 
dtiring  the  fury  of  actual  battle,  by  careful  diversion  of 
attack  from  the;  hospitals  containing  wounded  enemies, 
are  Outraged  in  cold  blood,  by  a  government  and  people 
that  pretend  to  desire  a  continuance  of  fraternal  con- 
nexion-. 

All  these  outrages  must  remain  unavenged,  save  by  the 
universal  reprobation  of  mankind,  in  all  cases  where  the 
actual  perpetrators  of  the  wrongs  escape  capture.  They 
admit  of  no  retaliation.  The  humanity  of  our  people 
would  shrink  instinctively  from  the  bare  idea  of  waging 
a  like  war  upon  the  sick,  the  women  and  the  children  of 
the  enemy. 

Bill  there  are  other  savage  practices  which  have  been 
resorted  to  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
which  do  admit  of  repression  by  retaliation.     I  have  been 


driven  to  the  necessity  of  enforcing  this  repression.  The 
prisoners  of  war  taken  by  the  enemy  on  hoard  the  armed 
schooner  Savannah,  sailing  under  our  commission,  were, 
as  I  was  credibly  advised,  treated  like  common  felons: 
put  in  irons:  confined  in  a  jail  usually  appropriated  to 
criminals  of  the  worst  dye,  and  threatened  with  punish- 
ment as  such.  I  had  made  an  application  for  the  ex- 
change of  these  prisoners,  to  tb0>  commanding  officer  of 
the  enemy's  squadron  off  Charleston  harbor,  but  that 
officer  had  already  sent  the  prisoners  to  New  York  when 
the  application  was  made.  I  therefore  deemed  it  my 
duly  to  renew  the  proposal  fir  the  exchange,  to  the  con- 
stitutional Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navv 
of  the  United  States,  the  only  oilicer  having  eontrol  of 
the  prisoners.  To  this  end  I  dispatched  an  oilicer  to  him, 
under  a  flag  of  truce;  and  in  making  the  proposal,  I  in- 
formed President  Lincoln  of  my  resolute  purpose  to  check 
all  barbarities  on  prisoners  of  war,  by  such  severity  of 
retaliation  on  the  prisoners  held  by  us  as  should  secure 
the  abandonment  of  the  practice. 

This  communication  was  received  and  read  by  the 
officer  in  command  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States, 
and  a  message  was  brought  from  him,  by  the  bearer  of 
my  communication,  that  a  reply  would  be  returned  by 
President  Lincoln  as  soon  as  possible.  I  earnestly  hope 
li',-1  i  his  promised  reply,  whieh  has  not  yet  been  received, 
will  convey  the  assurance  that  prisoners  of  war  will  be 
treated,  in  tins  unhappy  contest,  with  that  regard  to  hu- 
manity whieh  has  made  such  QonspiCUOUB  progrets  in  the 
conduct  of  modern  warfare.  As  a  measure  of  precaution, 
however,  and  until  the  promised  reply  is  received,  I  still 
retain  in  close  custody  some  officers  captured  from  the 
enemy*  whom  it  had  been  my  pleasure  previously  to  en- 
large on  parole,  ami  whose  fate  must  necessarily  depend 
on  that  of  the  prisoners  held  by  the  enemy. 

1  append  a  copy  of  my  communication  to  the  President 
and  (  ommander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the 
Unjted  States,  and  of  the  report  of  the  officer  charged  to 
deliver  it,  marked  Doe.  A. 

There  are  some  other  passages  in  the  remarkable  paper 
to  which  I  have  directed  your  attention,  having  reference 
to  the  peculiar  relations  which  exist  between  this  govern- 
ment and  the  States  usually  termed  the  border  slave 
States,  which  cannot  properly  be  withheld  from  notice. 


The  hearts  of  our  people  are  animated  by  sentiments 
towards  tne  inhabitants  of  those  States,  which  found  ex- 
pression in  your  enactment  refnsing  t<»  consider  them  as 
enemies,  or  to  authorize  hostilities  against  them.  That  a 
very  large  portion  of  the  people  of  those  States  regard  Us 
as  brethren;  that  if  unrestrained  by  the  actual  presence 
of  lafge  armies,  the  suhversion  of  civil  authority  and  the 
declaration  of  martial  law,  some  of  them  at  least  would 
joyfully  unite  with  us;  that  they  are  with  almost  entire 
unanimity  Opposed  to  the  prosecution  of  the  war  waged 
against  us;  arc  facts  of  which  daily  recurring  events  fully 
warrant  the  assertion. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  refuses  to  recognize 
in  these,  our  late  sister  States,  the  right  of  refraining  from 
attack  on  us:  and  justifies  his  refusal  by  the  assertion 
that  the  States  have  no  other  power  "than  that  reserved 
to  them  in  the  Union  by  the  Constitution,  no  one  of  them 
having  ever  been  a  State  out  of  tin   I  nwn,?* 

This  view  of  the  constitutional  relations  between  the 
States  and  the  General  Government,  is  a  fitting  introduc- 
tion to  another  assertion  of  tin-  Message,  that  the  Execu- 
tive possesses  the  power  of  suspending  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  and  of  delegating  that  power  to  military  com- 
manders, at  his  discretion:  and  both  these  propositions 
claim  a  respect  equal  to  that  which  is  felt  for  the  addi- 
tional statement  of  opinion  in  the  same  paper,  that  it  is 
proper,  in  order  to  execute  the  laws,  that  "  some  single 
law,  made  in  such  extreme  tenderness  of  the  citizens'  li- 
bertv,  thai  practically  it  relieves  more  of  the  guilty  than 
the  innocent,  should,  to  a  verv  limited  extent,  be  vio- 
lated." 

We  may  well  rejoice  that  we  have  forever  severed  our 
Connection  with  a  government  that  thus  tramples  on  all 
the  principles  of  constitutional  liberty,  and  with  a  people 
in  whose  presence  such  avowals  cOuld  he  hazarded. 

The  operations  in  the  field  will  be  greatly  extended 
by  reason  of  the  policy  which,  heretofore  secretly  enter- 
tained, is  now  avowed  and  acted  on  by  the  United  States. 
The  forces  hitherto  raised  proved  ample  for  the  defence 
of  the  seven  States  which  originally  organized  the  Con- 
federacy, as  is  evinced  by  the  fact,  that  with  the  excep- 
tion of  three  fortified  islands,  whose  defence  is  efficiently 
aided  by  a  preponderating  naval  force,  the  enemy  has 


been  driven  completely  out  of  those  States ;  and  now,  at 
the  expiration  of  five  months  from,  the  formation  of  the 
government,  not  a  single  hostile  foot  presses  their  soil. 
Those  forces,  however,  must  necessarily  prove  inadequate 
to  repel  the  invasion  by  half  a  million  of  men,  now  pro- 
posed by  the  enemy  ;  and  a  corresponding  increase  in  our 
forces  will  become  necessary.  The  recommendations  for 
the  raising  and  efficient  equipment  of  this  additional 
force,  will  be  contained  in  the  cominunication  of  the  Se- 
erctary  of  War,  to  which  I  need  scarcely  invite  your  ear- 
nest attention. 

In  my  Message  delivered  in  April  last,  I  referred  to  the 
promise  of  abundant  crops,  with  which  we  were  cheered. 
The  grain  crops,  generally,  have  since  been  harvested, 
and  the  yield  has  proven  to  be  the  most  abundant  known 
in  our  hislory.  Many  believe  the  supply  adequate  to  two 
years'  consumption  of  our  population.  Cotton,  sugar  and 
tobacco,  forming  the  surplus  production  of  our  agricul- 
ture, and  furnishing  the  basis  of  our  commercial  inter- 
changes, present  the  most  cheering  promise ;  and  a  kind 
Providence  lias  smiled  on  the  labor  which  extracts  the 
teeming  wealth  of  our  soil  in  all  portions  of  our  Con- 
federacy. 

It  is  the  more  gratifying  to  be  able  to  give  you  this 
assurance,  because  of  the  need  of  a  large  and  increased 
expenditure  in  the  support  of  our  army.  Elevated  and 
purified  by  the  sacred  cause  they  maintain,  our  fellow- 
citizens  of  every  condition  of  life  exhibit  the  most  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  :  They  manifest  a  laudable  pride  in 
upholding  their  independence,  unaided  by  any  resources 
other  than  their  own:  and  the  immense  wealth  which  a 
fertile  soil  and  genial  climate  have  accumulated  in  this 
confederacy  of  agriculturists,  could  not  be  more  strik- 
ingly displayed  than  in  the  large  revenues  which,  with 
eager  zeal,  they  have  contributed,  at  the  call  of  their 
country-  In  the  single  article  of  cotton,  the  subscription 
to  the  loan  proposed  b}r  the  government  cannot  fall  short 
of  fifty  millions  of  dollars,  and  will  probably  largely  ex- 
ceed that  sum  :  and  scarcely  an  article  required  for  the 
consumption  of  the  army  is  provided  otherwise  than  by 
subscription  to  the  produce  loan  so  happily  devised  by 
your  wisdom.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  the  re- 
port submitted  to  you  by  him,  will  give  you  the  amplest 
details  connected  with  that  branch  of  the  public  service. 


8 

But  it  is  not  alone  in  their  prompt  pecuniary  contribu- 
tions that  the  tooble  racfe  of  freemen  who  inhabit  these 
States  ovine;'  how  worthy  thry  art  of  tin*  liberties  Which 
they  so  well  know  how  to  defend.  In  numbers  far  e\- 
( ding  those  authorized  by  your  laws,  they  have  prtssed 

the  tender  of  their  services  againtrl  the*  enemy.    Their 

attitude  of  calm  and  sublime  devotion  to  their  country: 
the  cool  and  confident  dourage  with  which  thev  are 
already  preparing  to  meel  ihe  threatened  invasion  in 
whatever  proportions  it  may  assume;  the  assurance  that 
their  sacrifices  and  their  services  will  be  renewed  from 
year  to  year  with  unfaltering  purpose,  until  they  have 
made  good  to  the  uttermost,  their  right  to  self-govcrn- 
ment ;  the  generous  arid  almost  unquestioning  eonlidence 
which  they  display  in  their  government  during  the  pend- 
ing struggle1;  all  combine  to  present  a  spectacle  such  as 
the  world  has  rarely,  if  ever,  seen. 

To  speak  of  subjugating,  such  a  people,  so  united  and 
determined,  is  to  speak  a  language  incomprehensible  to 
them.  To  resist  attacks  on  their  rights  or  their  liberties 
is  with  them  an  instinct.  Whether  this  war  shall  last 
one,  or  three,  or  five  years,  is  a  problem  they  leave  to  be 
solved  by  the  enemy  alone ;  it  will  last  till  the  enemy 
shall  have  withdrawn  from  their  borders — till  their  politi- 
cal rights,  their  altars  and  their  homes  arc  freed  from  in- 
vasion. Then  and  then  only  will  they  vest  from  this 
struggle,  to  enjoy  in  peace  the  blessings  which  with  the 
favor  of  Providence  they  have  secured  by  the  aid  of  their 
own  strong  hearts  and  sturdy  arms. 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 
Richmond,  July  20,  1SG1. 


DOCUMENT  A. 


RICHMOND,  6th  July  186 1, 

To  Abraham  Lincoln,  President,  and 

Commander  in  Chief  of  t/ie  Army  and  Navy  of  the  U.  S. 

Sir, 

Having  learned  that  the  schooner  Savannah,  a 
private  armed  vessel  in  the  service  and  sailing  under  a 
commission  issued  by  authority  of  the  Confederate  States 
of  America,  had  been  captured  by  one  of  the  vessels 
forming  the  blockading  squadron  off  Charleston  harbor, 
I  directed  a  proposition  to  be  made  to  the  officer  com- 
manding that  squadron  for  an  exchange  of  the  officers 
and  crew  of  the  Savannah  for  prisoners  of  war  held  by 
this  government  "  according  to  number  and  rank."  To 
this  proposition,  made  on  the  19th  ult.,  Capt.  Mercer,  the 
officer  in  command  of  Uie  blockading  squadron,  made 
answer  on  the  same  day  that  "  the  prisoners  (referred  to) 
are  not  on  board  of  any  of  the  vessels  under  my  com- 
mand." 

It  now  appears,  by  statements  made  without  contra- 
diction in  newspapers  published  in  New  York,  that  the 
prisoners  above  mentioned  were  conveyed  to  that  city, 
and  have  there  been  treated  not  as  prisoners  of  war,  but 
as  criminals :  thnt  they  have  been  put  in  irons,  confined 
in  jail,  brought  before  the  courts  of  justice  on  charges  of 
piracy  and  treason,  and  it  is  even  rumored  that  they  have 
been  actually  convicted  of  the  offences  charged,  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  they  bore  arms  in  defence  of  the 
2 


10 

rights  of  this  government  and  under  the  authority  of  its 
commission. 

I  could  not  without  grave  discourtesy  have  made  the 
newspaper  statements  above  referred  to,  the  subject  of 
this  communication,  if  the  threat  of  treating  as  pirates 
tin-  citizens  of  this  Confederacy,  armed  for  its  service  on 
the  high  seas,  had  not  been  contained  in  your  proclama- 
tion of  the April  last.     Thai  proclamation,  however, 

seems  to  afford  a  sufficient  justification  for  considering 
these  published  statements  as  not  devoid  of  probability. 

It  is  the  desire  of  this  government  so  to  conduct  the 
war  now  existing  as  to  mitigate  its  horrors  as  far  as  may 
be  possible :  and,  with  this  intent,  its  treatment  of  the 
prisoners  captured  by  its  forces  has  been  marked  by  the 
greatest  humanity  and  leniency  consistent  with  public 
obligation :  some  have  been  permitted  to  return  home  on 
parole,  others  to  remain  at  large  under  similar  condition 
within  this  Confederacy,  and  all  have  been  furnished  with 
rations  for  their  subsistence,  such  as  are  allowed  to  our 
own  troops.  It  is  only  since  the  news  has  been  received 
of  the  treatment  of  the  prisoners  taken  on  the  Savannah, 
that  I  have  been  compelled  to  withdraw  these  indulgences 
and  to  hold  the  prisoners  taken  byus  in  strict  confinement. 

A  just  regard  to  humanity  and  to  the  honor  of  this 
government  now  requires  me  to  state  explicitly,  that 
painful  as  will  be  the  necessity,  this  government  will  deal 
out  to  the  prisoners  held  by  it,  the  same  treatment  and 
the  same  fate,  as  shall  be  experienced  by  those  captured 
on  the  Savannah  ;  and  if  driven  to  the  terrible  necessity 
of  retaliation  by  your  execution  of  any  of  the  officers  or 
crew  of  the  Savannah,  that  retaliation  will  be  extended 
so  far  as  shall  be  requisite  to  secure  the  abandonment  of 
a  practice  unknown  to  the  warfare  of  civilized  man  ;  and 
so  barbarous  as  to  disgrace  the  nation  which  shall  be 
guilty  of  inaugurating  it. 


11 

With  this  view,  and  because  it  may  not  have  reached 
you,  I  now  renew  the  proposition  made  to  the  commander 
of  the  blockading  squadron,  to  exchange  for  the  prisoners 
taken  on  the  Savannah,  an  equal  number  of  those  now 
held  by  us,  according  to  rank. 

I  am,  sir,  yours,  &c. 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS,  President, 
and   Commander  in   Chief  of  the  Army  and 

Nary  of  (he   Confederate  States. 


13 


[Copy.] 

Richmond,  July  10th,  186ft. 

To  His  Excellency  Jefferson  Davis, 

President  of  the  Confederate  States. 

#JR, 

In  obedience  to  your  instructions,  I  left  the  city 
of  Richmond  ou  the  morning  of  the  ?th  of  July  at  6 
o'clock.  A.  M.j  as  bearer  of  dispatches  to  His  Excellency 
Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States.  At 
Manassas  I  received  from  General  Beauregard  a  letter  to 
General  McDowell,  commanding  the  U.  S.  forces  at  A\- 
lington.  From  Manassas  I  proceeded  to  Fairfax  court- 
house, where  I  was  furnished  by  General  Bonhain,  an 
escort  of  fourteen  cavalry  under  the  command  of  Lieu; 
Breckenridge  of  the  Virginia  cavalry.  Proceeding  on  the 
direct  road  to  Alexandria  to  its  junction  with  the  road  to 
Arlington,  I  met  a  detachment  of  cavalry  under  the  com- 
mand of  Col.  Porter,  U.  S.  A.,  about  three  miles  from  the 
junction  ;  from  which  pla-ee  I  sent  back  my  escort.  Oapt. 
Whipple,  U.S.  A.,  accompanied  me  to.  Arlington,  where 
I  arrived  about  4  o'clock  P.  M.,  Monday  the  8th.  Gen. 
McDowell  not  being  at  Arlington,  my  arrival  was  tele- 
graphed him  to  Washington  city.  About  9  o'clock  P.  M. 
Ool.  Van  Renslaer,  senior  aid-de-camp  to  General  Scott, 
was  sent  to  convey  me  to  General  Scott's  headquarters — 
where  I  found  General  McDowell,  to  whom  I  delivered 
General  Beauregard's  letter.  After  reading  Gen.  B.'s  let- 
ter, he  passed  it  to  General  Scott,  who  being  informed  in 
tins  letter,  that  I  desired  to  deliver  your  communication 
in  person,  received  it  of  me.  After  reading  your  com- 
munication to  Mr.  Lincoln,  Gen.  Scott  informed  me  that 


14 

a  reply  would  be  returned  by  Mr.  Lincoln  as  soon  as  pos- 
gjble — and  at  the  same  time  instructed  me  to  return  to 
Arlington  with  Gen.  McDowell,  thence  to  proceed  in  the 
Morning  back  to  our  fines,  Which  1  did,  under  an  escort 
of  twenty  U.  S.  cavalry,  commanded  by  Lieut.  Putnam. 
In  my  intercourse  with  Gen.  Scott  and  the  other  officers 
of  the  U.  S.  army,  I  have  to  say,  that  I  was  received  with 
narked  consideration  and  attention,  and  with  that  cour- 
tesy and  kindness  which  should  ever  characterize  the  di- 
plomatic relations  of  great  nations,  in  war  as  well  as  in 
peace.  Understanding  that  the  object  of  my  mission  was 
the  delivery  of  your  letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  I  have  the 
fconor  to  state  that  it  was  done,  and  subscribe  myself 

Your  obedient  servant, 

THOS.  H.  TAYLOR, 

Gttpt*  Cavalry  C.  S.  A. 
And  Lt.  Col.  2nd  Kij.  Regiment. 


KlTCHIF.   &    DrNNAVANT,  PR1NTKRS. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


